The current sweeps the Old World,
The current sweeps the New;
The wind will blow, the dawn will glow,
Ere thou hast sailed them through.
Kingsley, "A Myth"

Historical Outline

Amid the many changes which make the reign of
Victoria the most progressive in English history, one may discover
three tendencies which have profoundly affected our present life
and literature. The first is political and democratic: it may be
said to have begun with the Reform Bill of 1832; it is still in
progress, and its evident end is to deliver the government of
England into the hands of the common people. In earlier ages we
witnessed a government which laid stress on royalty and class
privilege, the spirit of which was clarioned by Shakespeare in the
lines:

Not all the water in the rough rude sea
Can wash the balm from an anointed king.

In the Victorian or modern age the divine right of kings is as
obsolete as a suit of armor; the privileges of royalty and nobility
are either curbed or abolished, and ordinary men by their
representatives in the House of Commons are the real rulers of
England.

With a change in government comes a corresponding change in
literature. In former ages literature was almost as exclusive as
politics; it was largely in the hands of the few; it was supported
by princely patrons; it reflected the taste of the upper classes.
Now the masses of men begin to be educated, begin to think for
themselves, and a host of periodicals appear in answer to their
demand for reading matter. Poets, novelists, essayists,
historians,--all serious writers feel the inspiration of a great
audience, and their works have a thousand readers where formerly
they had but one. In a word, English government, society and
literature have all become more democratic. This is the most
significant feature of modern history.

The Scientific Spirit

The second tendency may be summed up in the word "scientific." At
the basis of this tendency is man's desire to know the truth, if
possible the whole truth of life; and it sets no limits to the
exploring spirit, whether in the heavens above or the earth beneath
or the waters under the earth. From star-dust in infinite space
(which we hope to measure) to fossils on the bed of an ocean which
is no longer unfathomed, nothing is too great or too small to
attract man, to fascinate him, to influence his thought, his life,
his literature. Darwin's Origin of Species (1859), which
laid the foundation for a general theory of evolution, is one of
the most famous books of the age, and of the world. Associated with
Darwin were Wallace, Lyell, Huxley, Tyndall and many others, whose
essays are, in their own way, quite as significant as the poems of
Tennyson or the novels of Dickens.

It would be quite as erroneous to allege that modern science began
with these men as to assume that it began with the Chinese or with
Roger Bacon; the most that can be said truthfully is, that the
scientific spirit which they reflected began to dominate our
thought, to influence even our poetry and fiction, even as the
voyages of Drake and Magellan furnished a mighty and mysterious
background for the play of human life on the Elizabethan stage. The
Elizabethans looked upon an enlarging visible world, and the wonder
of it is reflected in their prose and poetry; the Victorians
overran that world almost from pole to pole, then turned their
attention to an unexplored world of invisible forces, and their
best literature thrills again with the grandeur of the universe in
which men live.

Imperialism

A third tendency of the Victorian age in England is expressed by
the word "imperialism." In earlier ages the work of planting
English colonies had been well done; in the Victorian age the
scattered colonies increased mightily in wealth and power, and were
closely federated into a world-wide Empire of people speaking the
same noble speech, following the same high ideals of justice and
liberty.

The literature of the period reflects the wide horizons of the
Empire. Among historical writers, Parkman the American was one of
the first and best to reflect the imperial spirit. In such works as
A Half-Century of Conflict and Montcalm and Wolfe he
portrayed the conflict not of one nation against another but rather
of two antagonistic types of civilization: the military and feudal
system of France against the democratic institutions of the
Anglo-Saxons. Among the explorers, Mungo Park had anticipated the
Victorians in his Travels in the Interior of Africa (1799),
a wonderful book which set England to dreaming great dreams; but
not until the heroic Livingstone's Missionary Travels and
Research in South Africa, The Zambesi and its Tributaries and
Last Journals [Footnote: In connection with Livingstone's
works, Stanley's How I Found Livingstone (1872) should also
be read. Livingstone died in Africa in 1873, and his
Journals were edited by another hand. For a summary of his
work and its continuation see Livingstone and the Exploration of
Central Africa (London, 1897).] appeared was the veil lifted
from the Dark Continent. Beside such works should be placed
numerous stirring journals of exploration in Canada, in India, in
Australia, in tropical or frozen seas,--wherever in the round world
the colonizing genius of England saw opportunity to extend the
boundaries and institutions of the Empire. Macaulay's Warren
Hastings, Edwin Arnold's Indian Idylls, Kipling's
Soldiers Three,--a few such works must be read if we are to
appreciate the imperial spirit of modern English history and
literature.